It's been believed that time heals a broken heart, but a new study is revealing that might not actually be the case.
Broken heart syndrome, which is known as tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy in the medical world, is a stress-induced acute heart condition. It usually occurs after the death of a loved one, losing a job, or divorce.
The syndrome is often confused with a heart attack because the two conditions have similar symptoms - including shortness of breath and chest pain.
Researchers with the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom studied 26 patients who were diagnosed with broken heart syndrome, along with a control group of 11 healthy patients. The study was performed by testing the patient's hearts with imaging tools that were more sophisticated than normally used, according to a university press release.
"The usual test for heart function is an echocardiogram (Echo) test, and when we conduct this, it shows that the heart is back to normal," study researcher Dr. Dana Dawson, senior lecturer in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Aberdeen, explained in a university press release. "However, when talking to the patients, they report that they are still not feeling themselves, cannot take part in strenuous activity and many have been unable to return to work."
However, with the more sophisticated imaging tools the researchers realized that the parts of the heart most affected by the stress were still swollen four months later. This was not picked up on the usual equipment used for testing.
"The general belief was this condition was recovering itself very rapidly, but this was obviously not the case when we investigated in greater detail," Dawson said in the press release. "The heart muscle becomes like a sponge when it has absorbed water and it swells significantly. We also observed that the ability of the heart to generate the energy it needs to produce a pumping action was very much reduced."
There are no specific guidelines for treating broken heart syndrome, but cardiologists have been beginning to focus on the physical toll that emotional trauma and stress can take on the heart and the patient's diet and exercise in recent years, according to the release.
The study was published in the Journal of the American College Of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging.
